Saint Faustina was born Helena Kowalska in a small village in Poland in 1905. When she was almost twenty, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, whose members devote themselves to the care and education of troubled young women. On February 22, 1931, Jesus appeared to her as the “King of Divine Mercy” wearing a white garment, with rays of white and red light emanating from near his heart. He told her to paint an image according to this pattern with the signature, “Jesus, I trust in You.” Three years later the first artistic rendering of the image was performed.

On February 22, Jesus also told Faustina that he wanted the Divine Mercy image to be “solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy.” She was asked to become the apostle and secretary of God’s mercy, a model of how to be merciful to others, and an instrument for re-emphasizing God’s plan of mercy for the world.

In 1935 Faustina wrote of a vision about the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in her diary. The chaplet is about a third of the length of the Rosary. She wrote that the purpose for the chaplet’s prayers for mercy are threefold: to obtain mercy, to trust in Christ’s mercy, and to show mercy to others.

Saint Faustina suffered in secret, with only her spiritual director and some of her superiors aware that anything special was taking place in her life. She died in 1938 from tuberculosis. She was beatified on April 18, 1993 and canonized on April 30, 2000—the first saint in the 21st century.

Send your intentions to be remembered in a special Mass on April 12, in celebration of the Divine Mercy of Jesus.